Brayan Rocchio singled in Andrés Giménez with the winning run as the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians scored three times in the 10th inning to beat the Minnesota Twins 5-4 on Wednesday night. It's another crushing loss for Minnesota, their second such game in three days.
"The emotions are what you're gonna feel in any difficult loss," says Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli. "It would feel like that no matter when it was. Probably hurts more being where we're at in the season towards the end, you know, fighting for everything right now, and our guys are out there giving it a lot."
After the Twins took a 4-2 lead in the 10th inning thanks to a huge hit from the just activated Carlos Correa, the Guardians stormed back in the bottom half. Cleveland's Kyle Manzardo and Will Brennan had RBI singles off Ronny Henriquez (1-1) before Michael Tonkin entered and gave up Rocchio’s second career walk-off hit, a chopper to right through a drawn-in infield.
"Chop it up however you want, you know, we get to the end of the game, we're gonna be down on some days and not have everybody available in the pen and we got Ronnie out there," explained Baldelli. "We just weren't able to hold it."
The Guardians, who now have a major league-leading 41 comeback victories this season. The win reduced Cleveland's magic number for clinching a playoff berth to one meaning they can secure their postseason spot with a win over the Twins Thursday.
Correa finished with four RBIs and extended his hitting streak to 16 games, matching his career high with Houston in 2019 despite missing a ton of time with plantar fasciitis.
“I was excited about that at-bat and it was a good moment, but it wasn’t good enough,” said Correa, who is batting .377 with five homers and 15 RBIs in his last 17 games. “You just have to keep fighting. It’s a tough sport.”
Twins right-hander Bailey Ober struck out a career-high 12 over seven innings, but remained winless in seven starts since Aug. 9. He allowed two runs without issuing a walk.
With the loss, Minnesota’s lead over Detroit for the final AL wild-card position was sliced to one half a game. The Twins own the tiebreaker over the Tigers and the clubs are done with their season series.
GAME PREVIEW
Minnesota Twins (80-72, third in the AL Central) vs. Cleveland Guardians (88-65, first in the AL Central)
Cleveland; Thursday, 12:10 p.m. Pregame 11:30 a.m. on 830 WCCO Radio and the Audacy app (in-market restrictions apply)
PITCHING PROBABLES: Twins: Simeon Woods Richardson (5-5, 4.08 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 109 strikeouts); Guardians: Joey Cantillo (2-3, 4.99 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 31 strikeouts)
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK: LINE Guardians -113, Twins -106; over/under is 8 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Cleveland Guardians face the Minnesota Twins, leading the series 2-1.
Cleveland is 88-65 overall and 47-28 at home. Guardians hitters are batting a collective .238, which ranks eighth in the AL.
Minnesota has a 38-39 record in road games and an 80-72 record overall. The Twins are 33-15 in games when they hit two or more home runs.
Thursday’s game is the 13th time these teams match up this season. The Guardians hold a 9-3 advantage in the season series.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jose Ramirez leads Cleveland with 35 home runs while slugging .514. Lane Thomas is 10-for-40 with three home runs and 11 RBI over the past 10 games.
Carlos Santana has 22 home runs, 57 walks and 65 RBI while hitting .240 for the Twins. Kyle Farmer is 11-for-24 with two doubles, three home runs and five RBI over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Guardians: 7-3, .237 batting average, 1.98 ERA, outscored opponents by 10 runs
Twins: 4-6, .234 batting average, 4.39 ERA, outscored by five runs
INJURIES: Guardians: Steven Kwan: 10-Day IL (undisclosed), Alex Cobb: 15-Day IL (finger), Sam Hentges: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Shane Bieber: 60-Day IL (elbow), Trevor Stephan: 60-Day IL (elbow), James Karinchak: 60-Day IL (shoulder)
Twins: Max Kepler: 10-Day IL (knee), Kody Funderburk: 60-Day IL (oblique), Chris Paddack: 60-Day IL (forearm), Joe Ryan: 60-Day IL (tricep), Brock Stewart: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Alex Kirilloff: 60-Day IL (back), Carlos Correa: 10-Day IL (foot), Justin Topa: 60-Day IL (knee), Daniel Duarte: 60-Day IL (tricep), Anthony DeSclafani: 60-Day IL (elbow)
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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